Day 25 of the 2025 Halloween Horror Movie Marathon

Another excellent movie that deserves more attention. The Man in the White Van is loosely based on serial killer and rapist Billy Mansfield Jr. After watching the film I looked up the case and didn't find a lot of facts portrayed in the movie other than the Florida setting.

Still, fact-based or not, the movie does a great job of building a sense of dread as the killer stalks fifteen-year-old Annie Williams (played perfectly by Madison Wolfe). Shown earlier as a girl with a wild imagination, her family doesn't believe her about the man in the white van, adding to the tension. Ali Larter and Sean Astin play the parents and the family dynamics between them, as well as Annie's siblings, is very well done. The tale is skillfully told, with flashbacks to the earlier murders that only show the van and silhouettes of the killer, or sometimes his shoes, reminiscent of the classic, Duel.

Then ending is done well and as the credits roll there are news reports about the bodies of other victims found, tying the film a bit closer to the Billy Mansfield Jr. case. I loved it. If you like suspense without a lot of gore or jump scares, check it out.